Pets such as dogs and cats are generally fed or watered by placing their food or water in a bowl disposed on the floor. A common complaint of pet owners is that the pet often spills food from the dish, or overturns the dish completely. Due to the fact that pet feeding bowls may remain accessible to the animal for many hours while the pet owner is absent, the spilled food is not cleaned away. As a result, the spilled food can comprise an attractant to insects, rodents, and other pets. Indeed, a frequent and serious disease affecting pets is leptospirosis, a disease that is spread solely by rodent contact with the pet food. Spillage from feeding bowls also causes staining of floors and carpets, odors, dangerous walking conditions, and the like.
As noted above, pet feeding bowls are often left out for hours, and the food may dry and cake onto the bowl surface. Many pet owners are aware of the difficulty in cleaning and removing dried food substances from the bowl.
Most pet feeding dishes may easily slide on a floor surface, and the feeding activity of the animal often causes the dish or bowl to move laterally a considerable distance. Thus the spillage and the like escapes the confinement of the owner-defined pet feeding area.
There are known in the prior art many designs of pet feeding bowls. Some are provided with wide bases to resist tipping and upset, and others have broad or flared upper edges to resist gripping by the animal's jaws. The concept of an antiskid dish to prevent lateral movement thereof appears not to be known in the prior art. Likewise, there appears to be no pet dish in the prior art that is designed with a non-stick surface to resist food caking and facilitate cleaning. The present invention is directed to overcoming these shortcomings in the prior art.